SMEs: Small, Medium, and Extraordinary

 “As is common in the outdoor recreation sector, I hold multiple jobs, so I’m not entirely dependent on the revenue from activetours.ch. Moreover, my fixed costs are low. I don’t need a fleet of tools or vehicles to do my work, and my office is the mountains. Other colleagues in the tourism industry and the restaurant business have been hit harder by the COVID-19 crisis than I have. The 4Switzerland platform is a welcome gesture that’s almost more valuable to me psychologically than financially. My financial situation, by the way, was better during the hard lockdown than it is at the moment. During the hard lockdown, tours weren’t allowed at all, and compensation was thus paid out by the social insurance office or through partial unemployment benefits. That compensation has now been discontinued even though the small trekking group sizes due to the strict COVID-19 restrictions reduce my revenue. Ironically, demand would actually be there because the Swiss are vacationing in Switzerland these days, and the great outdoors presents a welcome change from being cooped up working from home. That, at least, lets me look to the future with confidence.”

“Our reflections go far beyond the economic concept of capital. We consider environmental, social, and symbolic aspects, for instance, equally as important for the future. Those aspects have found their way into the world of finance in the form of impact investing and ESG criteria used to rate companies’ environmental, social, and corporate governance practices. However, ESG ratings don’t always live up to their promises regarding their effectiveness and transparency. Moreover, SMEs, which are vital to our economic system, and startup companies as well most commonly cannot afford the expense of publishing ESG reports. Our project thus culminated in the elaboration of a business model for an “impulse marketplace” that connects sustainable, innovative SMEs and startups with investors who want to put an end to greenwashing. The impulse marketplace collaboratively combines cooperation with non-governmental organizations and forms of artificial intelligence to verify the soundness of the participating companies.”